Greetings and I hope you are enjoying your spring so far. With spring often comes a renewed desire to change your life in some ways. Often it’s to change your eating habits or to lose weight before the summer. This might be especially after this past year, when we may have adopted some less than desirable habits with being around the house so much.
One of the habits you may have adopted last year, and in years prior, was the habit of eating dark chocolate. I place myself in this category. It is a treat I enjoy myself while still being careful to watch my sugar. I don’t want to develop prediabetes again, but I love the taste of 90% dark chocolate. For some, it is definitely an acquired taste.
What about you? Are you a fan?
We have all heard about the good properties from which we can benefit when eating dark chocolate. So I want to explain to you the good news and bad news about dark chocolate. My information comes from a new book, which I love, and on a topic I am very interested in, The End of Alzheimer’s Program, the First Protocol to Enhance Cognition and Reverse Decline at any Age, by Dale Bredesen, M.D. I have no affiliation with the book. I just wanted you to know about it.
Cocoa refers to the processed product once the cacao beans have been harvested, fermented, dried and roasted at high temperatures. Cocoa flavanols are commonly enjoyed as cacao nibs, cocoa powder, cacao powder and chocolate. There is strong evidence that cocoa flavenols provide neuroprotection. They can improve cognitive protection and provide improved circulation to specific parts of the brain involved with age-related memory. They can improve overall metabolic health, delivering nutrients throughout the body and much more. Like that “feel good” feeling.
Here’s the bad news. There is potential for toxicity in cocoa flavenols. The heavy metals, lead and cadmium, affect many cocoa products, because of man-made pollution where they are processed. You can read more about this in Dr. Bredesen’s book, but here are the main takeaways. You want to find cacao products that are:
- High in cacao flavenols. The higher content the better (85% or higher.)
- Low sugar. The higher the cacao, the lower the sugar.
- Source low cadmium and lead.
There are places online where you can find out how much lead and cadmium there is in your favorite chocolate. As You Sow is a free online resource that has a search engine for looking up your brand of chocolate with the associated lead and cadmium levels.
There is so much good information in the book about the pluses and minuses of eating dark chocolate, in addition to other foods to be included in your eating protocol for a healthy brain and the prevention of Alzheimer’s. But here is the bottom line: Enjoy the health benefits of the flavenols by enjoying small amounts of chocolate high in cacao and low in sugar, cadmium and lead.
Are feeling at the mercy of chocolate or chips or any other treat? Would you like some help in ditching that habit? Maybe you are just feeling stalled out and you know you need to make a change for your health, like with prediabetes. I’d like to support you in overcoming these challenges. Just contact me here and let me know what your challenges are. I’ll get right back to you with some suggestions. I’d love to hear from you.
In life and health,
Jane
Jane Springer is a certified Life, Wellness and Style Coach who assists women in taking care of themselves, in body, mind and spirit. She coaches women who want to lose weight, avoid diabetes, and feel great. She also helps them thrive after divorce. She also helps them to clear their closets of old clothes and outdated attitudes, so they can shine and feel confident.